Caroline's Do's and Don't's of Fanfiction
by Kathryne Buzolic
Summary: In which I decide to turn to one of the best vampires in Mystic Falls for a little advice... *Just a fun guide for writing fanfiction, will post other parts in other fandoms!*


_**So a very good friend of mine recently started here on fanfiction, and she wasn't sure how to go about doing it. So I decided to make her a fun little guide for it! This isn't meant to offend anyone, it's just me helping out a friend. Here we go! (Also, you'll notice a lot of references to Sherlock, and my Sherlock/OC fic. I was watching Sherlock while writing this, sooo...)  
**_

* * *

I knocked on the door of the familiar house briskly, determined to be professional. However, when the door was opened by one of the bubbliest vampires in town, I couldn't help but grin.  
"Caroline! Hello!" I said eagerly, causing the blonde's brows to crease.  
"Hi...Have we met?" she asked somewhat cautiously. I shook my head, grinning to myself.  
"Nah. I'm a big fan, but this is just a quick self-insertion. I'll be outta here soon. My name's Kat, though." I replied, waving a hand. Caroline raised an eyebrow, moving aside to let me in.  
"Wait, self-insertion? What does that mean?" she asked as I sat at the kitchen table and motioned for her to join me.  
"Well...Have you heard of fanfiction?" I questioned in return. Her eyes lit up in understanding-I _knew_ I'd picked the right girl to help me out!  
"Oh, yeah, like that one fanfiction site, or Archive of Our Own? Doctor Who, Twilight, just a bunch of writers making up their own stories?" I nodded happily; Caroline Forbes was a godsend.  
"Exactly. For almost every TV show and movie out there, there's fanfiction. I myself tend to go for Sherlock and Doctor Who, but there are a bunch of others."  
Caroline nodded thoughtfully, sitting opposite me. "So, why are you here? I mean, I'm sure you aren't here just to ask me if I know about it and leave." she said, resting her chin on her hand and raising a brow. I nodded, mimicking her position.  
"Well, as a proud writer of fanfiction, I have to say I'm really sad by the amount of amazing fics that are getting ignored, and since you're so awesome, I was hoping you'd have some advice for everyone."  
Caroline beamed, seemingly flattered by the idea. "Well, I guess I can take a break from prom preparations to help you out..."

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**Caroline's Do's and Don't's of Fanfiction**

1. Start off with a good title. Make sure everything is properly capitalized; people tend to avoid fics that have all lowercase letters, or all mixed up letters.

**DO:** The Art of Deduction

**DON'T:** the art of deduction, The Art of deduction  
See? It looks a bit messy.

**Care's input**: Be creative with your title! Keep it relevant to your story, but use your imagination! Don't keep your titles really long or super short-some of the best titles are only two words. (Like The Notebook.)

2. Spell-check your summary! Make it intriguing. Use a quote from the story, or an interesting description. If you put 'I suck at summaries' or 'better than it sounds', people might dodge it. Spell-check, as a writer, will be your best friend. Don't be sloppy with your summary!

**DO:** Use a quote from the story. If it's interesting, people will check it out! You only have a few sentences, so be careful! If there are any specific pairings involved, put it up there! If people are searching for a certain pairing, it'll be the easiest way for them to find it! Ex: Sherlock/OC, SherlockxOC, Sherlock/Molly, John/Sarah

**DON'T:** he wasnt the only one to have a massive intellect and get under peoples skin. bad summary better then it sounds.

**Care's input:** When I have time to search the archive, I tend to stay away from stories that typos in their summaries. It just looks sloppy. Would you hand in an essay that looks like that?

3. Get a beta! Proofread! People will definitely drop your story if it's full of typos. If you don't trust yourself to do it, go find someone who will! Some of the best criticism you'll get is from a stranger.

**DO:** Pull a Santa! Check it twice for any mistakes!

**DON'T:** Just be lazy and think that with a million typos everyone will read it.

**Care's input:** Always try to keep things in order. If it's not your first language, I understand, but get a beta! If you have a ton of misspelled words and bad grammar in general, then most people will get frustrated and move on, even if your plot sounds good.

4. Make sure people are in character. It's not easy writing certain characters, so maybe watch/read something featuring them to get the hang of them.

**DO:** Sherlock looked over at John with a raised eyebrow. "I asked you to pass me that pen an hour ago. Weren't you listening?"  
John stared at him before shaking his head. "I left for work, Sherlock."

**DON'T:** "Johhhhnnnnn! I told you like an hour ago to pass me that fricking pennnn! You lazyass!"

**Care's input:** I hate it when people aren't in character! Especially when you take a really gruff character and turn him into a soft, fluffy person who loves puppies and chick flicks.

5. Have a consistent plot! CONSISTENCY IS KEY. Not everyone wants to read a bad soap opera where people die, come back two weeks later, and have a party.

**DO:** Have an idea of where you're going. Maybe draw an outline. Some things are spur of the moment, but have a plausible plot that keeps going.

**DON'T:** Have odd curves and twists that make no sense in every chapter. Surprises and cliffhangers are good, but if every chapter you're randomly killing people and butchering characters...Well...

**Care's input:** One idea to have is one big plot with smaller plots scattered around. Like in any show, there's one ultimate outcome, but smaller events taking place on the way. (If we want to use my life as example, steering Stefan back to humanity is the main plot, buf along the way, we have a school dance. Make sense?)

6. Put all trigger warnings in the beginning of your story!

**DO:** Trigger warning: mentions of abuse, rape, and suicide.

**DON'T:** Keep quiet. Who knows who could be reading it!

**Care's input:** I always like to know if there will be any possible triggers. I'm not someone who really needs to worry about it, but some things are uncomfortable to read, and if they'll be involved, I'd like to know.

7. Try to keep really long author notes at the end of the chapter.

**DO:** Wait until the end to launch into a really long story about how long it took you to write it, or things about the story. Some people don't necessarily mind having long author's notes at the beginning, but when you're anxious for an update, you tend to skim over the AN and go straight to the chapter...

**DON'T:** Put an insanely long rant before the chapter.

**Care's input:** That bugs me almost as much as posting five sentence author's notes instead of chapters! I'll read what you have to say, but keep it at the end, unless you're adding a smut warning and such.

8. Reviews. Do not beg, bribe, threaten, lie, whine, demand, or withhold chapters until you get a certain amount of reviews. Sometimes people don't review because they don't have anything to say. Don't say, "I'll only post if I get 10 reviews." Asking for reviews is always okay, but don't be demanding about it.

**DO:** Have any thoughts? A review can do wonders! I'll still post without a ton of reviews, but I wanna know what everyone thinks!

**DON'T:** I demand you people review! I won't post without reviews!  
**Care's input:** Look, I know that if no one's reviewing your story, you might lose inspiration and let everyone know that some insight would be nice, but don't be pushy about it or greedy with them. Also, sometimes people like it when you respond to their reviews personally. It adds a nice touch.

9. Reviewing. While reviews like 'love it update soon' are nice, more in-depth reviews are always welcome! Tell the author what you liked, what you didn't, how you're liking the plot, what you hope to see...  
There really aren't any DO's and DON'T's to reviewing. Just don't be a jerk about your reviews. Like we're taught as children...If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

**Care's input:** I always try to leave a nice review. If I don't like something, I try to tell them why as nicely as possible.

10. SPOILER ALERT! It's always a good idea to put a spoiler warning if your fic takes place after or during a certain event. Some people don't mind spoilers, but others do!

**DO: **In an author's note or even in the summary, let everyone know that there's potential spoilers. Ex: Post-Reichenbach, Spoilers for The Reichenbach Fall.

**DON'T: **Let everyone stumble onto the spoilers. It's the fastest way to annoy people and ruin an episode/movie for them.

11. Rate things appropriately! If you have a ton of violence and sex in your story, don't put it in the K+ section!

**DO: **Check the rating guidelines so you have an idea of where your story should go!

**DON'T: **Put a story in the wrong rating section.

**Care's input: **Once my ten year old cousin was looking through the archive in the T-rated section, and she found a story that _definitely _shouldn't have been there. Do you want that to happen to other people?

12. Last, but certainly not least, don't continue a story if you're losing muse for it. If it's more of a burden than a pleasure, put it on hiatus or end it at a reasonable place. If its reached it's natural end, don't force out more chapters. Sequels are good, but if you know that your story and its characters have had their fun, don't feel bad about ending it. Maybe one day you'll get inspiration for a sequel! But don't push it past its boundaries.

**Care's input: **Of course, there are times where you never want things to end. And that's natural. But I have seen far too many stories that have been pushed past their natural limit. Think of it like a movie. For example...The Notebook! It ends at the perfect place. Don't push it. Go with your gut. If it's telling you that this story is over, then it's over.

* * *

All in all, Care and I had a good chat and made a good list for it. She didn't really understand why I'd come to her, but that's cool. Now to go to 221B about characterization...Until next time!

* * *

_**Well, I hope this was helpful to whoever read it! I hope I didn't offend anyone with this. I was giving advice as a writer and how I do things, nothing more.**_

_**Keep a look out for the next steps; Sherlock's Reluctant Guide to Characterization, Kirk's Advice on Action, and The Doctor's Rules for Research!**_

_**(I'm spreading these across different fandoms, but honestly, it's not like you need to know anything about the fandoms. I just like to turn to my favorite characters for help on things they know about! Also, the reason I chose Caroline to help was because she's pretty good at managing things, so why not?)**_


End file.
